to want most parents to consider themselves home educators?

[Butterpie]

At least part time, anyway? I think you would find it very hard not to educate your child in any way yourself. I HE. My children are six months and three years old. It happens that we are not intending to send them to school for part of their education, but even if we were, it's not like when they were at home they would be sat in a darkened box is it?

Why doesn't every parent (especially of preschool children) say they home educate, at least part time? School is just another tool that some parents choose to use alongside their home education. You would hope.

Sadly, I hear too many stories of parents refusing to be involved in any way (not even reading bedtime stories or talking about the world) and maybe this more enpowering approach could help. Plus as soon as I started seeing myself as a home educator, I felt a lot better about myself. No longer was I a part time worker/unemployed, hardly any qualifications, with two unplanned children, unable to afford various things. I suddenly became the main educator of two beautiful girls who were growing and learning every day. I read up on various activities and learning methods, I made a special effort to be active parent and so on.

I might be talking rubbish (quite possible as I am typing whilst supervising Art, Technology, Science, Literacy and Numeracy-otherwise known as decorating gingerbread men) but wouldn't that approach enpower parents and help children, as well as making the school's job easier?

Surely you'd need a C in maths and English GCSE to be offered a place to study teaching?

It IS fun. The point I am trying to make (which seems to be getting lost) is that EVERYTHING you do with your child is education. Even if they do go to school, and I'm sure you didn't take that decision lightly and it is the best thing for your family, when they come home, you are educating them.

I am trying to be nice...I am trying to say well done, give yourself a pat on the back, you are doing an important job, don't let anyone say you are "just" a mum, your child probably doesn't spend all their time at school and even if they do, you made that decision as the person in charge of their education.

I was just having a really fun afternoon, started thinking maybe I should have been tidying or working, then I realised all the skills I had "taught", I felt good, I wanted to spread it around a bit.

nor can we assume all mums are enlightened,empowered visionaries making every experience educational and significant.some sit on internet stuffing yappin to starngers when the rest of us are at work

this notion of bigging up every wee task or activity as home education is risible

next time you're feeling good, I'd just like to suggest you don't post in AIBU

post in chat

But you're not a mastermind in all areas either. That's why schools employ different teachers for different subjects that reflect their strengths and interests.

Gingerbread men are find at 3yo, but are you equipped to teach them quadratic equations, venn diagrams, chemistry and the 'mole', decline irregular French verbs or how to make a battery?

I admire your conviction, but some of your ideas seem a bit 'woolly'

Good luck, though

I try to educate mmy dd at home, and mostly get eye rolling and "I know that already Mummy" stuff. Even if she doesn't know something she pretends that she does. She is 6.

The only thing I taught her that got a reaction was "where do babies come from". The eye rolling was replaced by incredulity and horror!

but no one has ever called me just mum.cause im not.im not defined by motherhood

Cristina- I have a vague plan of them doing GCSEs, A Levels, Degrees and so on, obviously we will see how they turn out. They might (as a lot of HE kids do) start OU at 14 and go into mainstream uni at 18, or they might start full time mainstream school at 7, they might do all the same exams as everyone else, they might turn out to not be academic, and, while I will encourage them to get GCSEs, if they don't happen to have ability in that area, fair enough.

We have plans for the future, we will have to see if the kids fit into those plans though. We are hoping to follow a pretty classical style of education, plenty of Latin, literature and Hard Sums, but let's see how it turns out...

I do value qualifications, very much. I just don't think they should be the be all and end all. I don't think you need qualifications to be a parent, but that doesn't mean it isn't an important job.

parent isnt a job its a role,set of responsibilities.which we all undertake to greater or lesser extent

if it were a job we'd maybe be able to sack some of the slack folk and ne'er do wells

Hard Sums? Like with many digits and stuff?

Pat on the back? just a mum?

chortle @ Hard Sums.

What's the point of Latin then?

But what makes you think it is your job to hand out the gold stars for parenting effort? You sound extremely condescending TBH.

There was a thread recently about the most important thing you "got" from school. As I recall:

Friends
Typing
Cooking
IT skills
Plug changing
Languages
Car maintenance (Me )

Will you be covering these thing alongsides the Latin and hard sums?

I've never been "just a mum", thank you.

I have been "fuck every thing this little person is going to learn is going to come from me" Which was cool and scary at the same time.

And then I realised they actually do learn some stuff at school and got over myself.

I never learnt to change plugs at school. Dh will say I didn't learn to cook either. He had to teach me

Learning latin is a very good basis for learning foreign languages and English Grammar.

lynette

Blanket stitch.

this is gushy cringey gerls together.dont recognise your description of motherhood at all that bully-beef and overcoming adversity

I consider that changing a plug is one of the most useful skills I learnt at school. And how to change a flat tyre/ make a bechamel sauce/do percentages/speak French.

A lot of the rest is nice to have but I could have learnt it anyway later if I was interested. Those years of slaving over algebra and reading boring novels!

ZZZenAgain Fri 21-May-10 21:13:21
"cory your dp taught you Latin and Greek at home but they weren`t school subjects at all, just something you did at home with the dp?"

My parents were pretty laidback when it came to worrying about my school results; in fact, I'm not entirely sure they ever read my school reports. But they were the kind of people who could never stop teaching; it was as natural as breathing to them. Anything they were interested in, I got to hear about- and that was a pretty wide range. Sometimes it coincided with school subjects (in which case I almost invariably found my parents to be more reliable sources of information), sometimes it didn't.

My Mum taught me how to change a tyre, she also taught me that if there is a man around to just let him do it as it is a PITA and he will feel all "manly" and you will have your tyre changed, a win win situation. Not a terribly modern way of thinking, but it has stood me in good stead over the years.

What I learned at school:
How to make onion bhajis
How to get served for cigarettes wearing a school uniform
Long multiplication
Grammar
That boys are fun
And yes, how to change a plug!